It occurs to me that the acquisition, draining SLI balance sheet, may make merger deal less likely, as HNH is draining its own balance sheet through its own acquisitions. Then again, looking at ATNY, Steel Partners seems to like leverage and get away with it as regards getting loans.

I just checked and Westcott scissors are on Amazon, for example. I suspect that the retail pipeline of inventory to sales is lower for Amazon than for say Walmart, which means this could be another source of temporarily falling retail demand as total retail pipeline falls.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Scientists have developed a vaccine strain that has tested 100 percent effective in protecting chickens from bird flu and testing is underway to see if it also protects turkeys, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee at a hearing on Wednesday

The DividendRank formula at Dividend Channel ranks a coverage universe of thousands of dividend stocks, according to a proprietary formula designed to identify those stocks that combine two important characteristics — strong fundamentals and a valuation that looks inexpensive. Escalade, Inc. (ESCA) presently has an above average rank, in the top 50% of the coverage universe, which suggests it is among the top most "interesting" ideas that merit further research by investors.

But making Escalade, Inc. an even more interesting and timely stock to look at, is the fact that in trading on Wednesday, shares of ESCA entered into oversold territory, changing hands as low as $17.09 per share. We define oversold territory using the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which is a technical analysis indicator used to measure momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30.

They seem to expect store closures in office market to continue into next year. That does have a doubly depressing effect, as they point out, because of reduction in total inventory held by stores, so demand on ACU is less than retail sales.

I have trouble believing this is reason for pre-market tumble, especially given new price target, but then I am not that familiar with Wall Street doubletalk, as I don't tend to pay attention to it.

Autoliv (NYSE:ALV) is downgraded by Bank of America Merrill Lynch to a Neutral rating from Buy.The auto part seller faces a deep challenge in meeting volume targets in China, warns BAML.The investment firm lowers the price target on ALV to $120 from $128.

I believe such sales should be limited to a 2 week period after 10-Q is released, although such a policy is a problem with low volume stock. Certainly, by May 5, insiders have a pretty good idea of results for the quarter ending in May and should not be allowed to trade. Investors should be wary of trading themselves at such times.

Boone sold 20,000 shares May 5 at $13.00 and gave away 3,000 shares and now has 802k shares
Nasser sold 23,384 shares May 14 and now has 270k

Hurco looks like it is undervalued, especially given its cash balance. What worries me, is how much it has benefited from FX derivatives as Euro has sunk. On the line "Foreign exchange forward contracts" in the 10-Q 3.045 million is reported as "amount of gain recognized in operations" for the 6 months, which I equate to 31 cents eps. However, the format is very confusing, so this makes me very unsure if this should be subtracted from eps in trying to get a basis for some sort of extrapolation. The Euro has sunk only about a penny since the end of the quarter so I don't need to worry about that.

In the period after the merger "offer" I bought some more SLI thinking Steel Partners clearly was not worried about quarterly results and EPA, especially after company buying back stock at $42. Now, original idea of signing an agreement in less than a month was probably not realistic, and would look bad for fending off lawsuits. Still, no one else seemed to embrace my logic.

Two top veterinary officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and farmers affected by the bird flu outbreak said Tuesday it will take increased surveillance, improved farm security and more money to fight off a possible fall return of the disease that devastated chicken and turkey flocks.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee held a livestreamed hearing to discuss the response to the outbreak that has killed 48 million birds since early March in 15 states, including hardest-hit Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

With no new outbreaks in three weeks, it appears the virus has been eradicated for now, said Dr. David Swayne, director of a USDA poultry research laboratory in Georgia.

Yahoo! Finance Worldwide

Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE, and NYSEAmex when available. See also delay times for other exchanges. Quotes and other information supplied by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page. Quotes are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity. Quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes. All information provided "as is" for informational purposes only, not intended for trading purposes or advice. Neither Yahoo! nor any of independent providers is liable for any informational errors, incompleteness, or delays, or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein. By accessing the Yahoo! site, you agree not to redistribute the information found therein.